HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

160 THE MAN WHO BELIEVED GOD
This was not merely sentiment or emotion. The reality
of this experience was tested immediately, and to
the uttermost. There was at the time a financial stringency
of an acute nature, largely arising out of unjust
criticism at home of the Mission's responsibility for the
Y angchow riot. So urgent did economy become that Mr.
Taylor had to dispense with his cook, and have food
brought in from a public kitchen, at the cost of only one
Mexican dollar per head per month, the dollar being
worth about five shillings at that time. That meant twopence
a head per day for food! Then there was the riot
at Anking, and fear that this might lead to further harsh
criticism. Writing to Mr. Berger he said:
"Difficulties greater and more serious than I have ever
had crowd upon me. The last few months have been of unparalleled
pressure and constant movement; but I have
enjoyed more leisure of soul and rest of spirit than ever
before, and more joy in the Lord. If satisfied with His will
and way, there is rest."
That was written in December, 1869, just three
months after his newly-found joy. In the following
February his little son Samuel died; in March he had to
bid farewell to his three eldest children when they sailed
for England, in June was the Tientsin massacre, and all
its attendant anxieties, and in July, as we have seen,
his wife and babe were both taken from him at one blow.
And then came sickness-ague, dysentery, and sleeplessness.
Stripped of almost all that was personally
precious, it was a more sweeping experience than that
portrayed by Habakkuk, when fig-tree, olive, and vine
ceased to flourish, and when field, flock, and herd failed.
It was more than worldly substance gone, it was his
heart's cherished treasure. And yet Hudson Taylor continued
to rejoice in God, and to joy in the God of his